Invitation to Lecture on "A Duboisian Critique of Private Property" by Elvira Basevich (UC Davis)

We warmly invite you to the online lecture by Elvira Basevich on „A Duboisian Critique of Private Property “ on 7 June 2023. The lecture will be held in English and will take place from 6 until 8 pm. 

The passage of the Reconstruction Amendments legally abolished slavery and gave blacks de jure rights and protections of U.S. citizenship. W.E.B. Du Bois foresaw, however, that a “second slavery” would take the place of the “first” chattel slavery without the structural reorganization of the relation between labor and capital. To fulfill the unkept promise of Emancipation, Du Bois argues that black freedmen proposed an alternative take on the ideal of liberty: the redistribution of capital in a productive process is necessary to make liberty real for an emancipated workforce. The economic independence of productive (and reproductive) laborers must complete black civic enfranchisement as free and equal civic fellows in the postbellum republic.

This talk examines what Du Bois saw as the historical and conceptual link between race and exploitation; and it shows why the concentration of productive assets in the hands of a few white capitalists threatened to ‘re-enslave’ black freedmen and their descendants. 

To receive the Zoom link, please register with daniel.james@tu-dresden.de.

We look forward to your coming, an exciting lecture and the exchange afterwards.